Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Wormhole System Daily Ritual

Bring all exits to verge of collapse (unless I need one to use for a run to market)

Begin clearing sites, Mag, and Radar.

If all of these are cleared, then run Ladar, then run Grav sites for the ores needed for my reactions.

(NOTE: edited to correct reference to POS safety -vs- PvP safety)

Refreshing all signatures: since all sigs have been scanned down previously and bookmarked, only new signatures require the full scanning method. As such, I "refresh" all previously scanned sigs by setting 4 probes to .25AU cross pattern and position/scan over the bookmark. I can refresh 20+ sigs in under 10 minutes. With all sig bookmarks refreshed (or if no longer a hit, removed), only new sigs remain in the scan results to be probed. In a typical system, that means 1-4 new sigs per day at most. Scan them down and bookmark.

If any new sigs are new exits, evaluate for access to K-space materials or loot run, and either make the run or close them. Regardless, I typically close all non-static exits and bring static exits to "verge of collapse" before I begin working the sites. This greatly reduces the chance of visitors with sufficient firepower to represent a threat to my POS and help me monitor for PvP visitors.

In fact, I have a system now where I fit my Mining ships with a probe launcher, and ignore all "known" signatures. If any new signatures appear on fairly regular scans, then I know it is either a new site or a new exit/entrance. When a new sig appears, I drop everything, RTB, and scan the new sig. If it is anything other than an new WH, I bookmark it and it is added to the ignore list and I continue mining or whatever I was doing. If it is a new WH, it is typically a K162 and someone is local. I will scan them down and typically bring out the BS's and quickly close it or bring to verge of collapse. Before my last return, I typically leave a jetcan with 1 unit of something on the "outside" and rename it to - "This WH Closed for business!" - If left in a "verge of collapse" state, the returning visitor will see an obvious indicator to check the WH Info before proceeding.

Bottom line - if nothing bigger than a BC can get in, then I am pretty much safe in hardened POS fit.

This actually happened again tonight while mining - a new NullSec exit opened - with less than 1 minute between scans (hey, what else are you going to do while mining?), I was able to scan and warp to the exit (a K162 to NullSec) and observe the Helios still at the entrance. I de-cloaked my BS and he exited. I went back for my CovOps (in case the NullSec side was bubbled) to see if they were still in local - they were not, so I quickly closed the WH and got back to mining.

Once the system is farmed out, I will amend the above ritual to scan our the static C2 and see if there are sites to be run in the adjoining system, then once completed, I again bring it to verge of collapse.

12 comments:

i'd just like to ask, i live in a WH and have heard about closing, or reducing WH stability. how do you do it with just 2 accounts? a 300mil mass (2bil limit) WH would require both accounts to jump back and forth 9 times (100mil BS) and wait for the 5 minute 'realignment' timer thing each time. whats the faster way?

"Bottom line - if nothing bigger than a BC can get in, then I am pretty much safe in my tanked fits"

A T3 Cruiser is much smaller than a BC. Stealth Bombers are frigate sized. Yet both can have a cov ops cloak and still have enough firepower to deal massive DPS on their target.

Although this tactic can provide adequate protection from "casual" wormholeers, I wouldn't be scared if I saw the verge of collapse message in a ship properly fitted for this (love my SBs :-))

At least when you have suspicious exits like this, don't go to any of the Anomalies (the PVE sites if you like). If I see wrecks in directional I never launch probes. I use my on-board scanner when in the bomber and can scan down all the anomalies, then warp to each of them till I find the one where you are in.

If you go do a Mag/Radar/Grav/Ladar then I'll need to launch probes to track you down. That gives you the chance to spot them (usually 45 - 90 sec window) and get out before I land.

I am impressed though. I've been following your blog for long time now but I haven't seen you post about any PVP moments. Rather than a couple of POS incidents. How many times did you participate in any PVP inside Wspace? Willingly or Unwillingly? I always hear great stories but never anything wtfgotpwnd ones ( I know cause we get wtfpwnd pretty often :-p )

Jared & genetik - I use my Rokh and Domi - and yes, it is simply a matter of repeating until it closes or becomes critical. You have to get info on every trip through to understand if you have enough mass left to do the next round-trip with the current ship. I will make a post about closing WHs.

Thanks as ever Quiv - you are correct. I was mixing context there and what I meant to say was that it lessened the PvP risk, but pretty much negates altogether the POS risk with my hardened POS setup. I will edit the post accordingly.

Tolrok - yeah - that is pretty much "day-trip" territory - hardly enough time there to even justify a POS. My sessions are roughly 3 nights per week at about 3+ hours each.

Heya, i just wanted to thank you for your blogs they have been an awesome read and have really got me interested on wormholes.

A quick question though I am currently trying some class 1's on my BC (Hurricane) which have been going pretty well (having trouble killing stuff but fine tanking it, still tweaking my spec), now I have an alt who is currently flying a mammooth (he was intended to be a hauler for mining alt) and i want him to now be a support alt for my main, iv trained him up in codebreaking/analyzing so i can do some radar/mag sites but im not sure what i should aim him to fly, from what iv read on your posts a mammoth would only be good if i was maybe mining in their as the salvage gear and other loot doesnt take much room. Anyway some tips would be awesome (oh im also training another alt to fly a BC aswell so i can start duoing class 1's/2's to make things faster)

My corp is just starting to explore the WH world and I had a few questions on your priorities. We were mainly looking at the Mining aspects and I am wondering how the Radar/Mag/and Ladar site compare to the grav sites in isk/hr and risk.

Also, any thoughts on how a slightly larger force of 4-6 players and 6-10 toons would best exploit a Class 2 WH.

From my (albeit non-mining) perspective, the yield from site running far surpasses Grav/Ladar, but that could be more due to the fact that I do not have the ships and patience to literally clear these Grav sites. Class 2 Grav's have Roids similar to that of higher-quality LowSec Grav sites, but with arguably substantially less risk.

Since I have not quantified the true value of the 5+ packed Grav sites, it is hard for me to answer the question - other comments have stated there are ISK riches in the Grav sites equal to or in excess of the sleeper loot.

My gut feeling is that a typical C2 with 4-5 Grav sites would yield at least 1B ISK if fully farmed. However, it becomes more an issue of getting all of that ore to market...

Other folks might have better insight here.

In terms of the 4-6 players (6-10 active chars), assuming you "cut your teeth" in a C2 to get the process down to a science, you could/should be looking at quickly escalating to C4 and C5's, where Ladar sites become more profitable and the Grav sites are even better quality.

As the others, I want to thank you for all the information and knowledge you share about your w-space adventures. A couple of pilots in my corp tried something similar this past summer and I joined half way thru it. I had a blast. My goal was to use try this "solo" (with 2 accounts). Reading your blog gives me a lot of pointers and ideas to make this project a success. Thanks!